Fr. Andrey Kurayev, a well-known Orthodox missionary deacon, acclaimed newly introduced Russia's ban on hunting calves of the Greenland seal, which reach the ices of the White Sea each spring to breed their calves.

"If someone comes to Russia to procreate, this is really great! Why do we need to kill those, bread and born here? If the only thing we are able to do is turning everything around us into ashes, this is definitely not to our credit," Fr. Andrey told Interfax-Religion.

On Tuesday, March 17, 2009, at 7 p.m., at a refectory of the church of St Sava at Vracar, His Grace Bishop Atanasije of Hvosno, vicar of His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, on the behalf of Patriarch of Serbia and His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral, opened an exhibition oficons and frescoes, copies of the icons and the frescoes from monasteries and churches in Kosovo and Metohia. The icons and frescoes are created by students of the Academy of Arts and Conservation of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and which were created under the mentorship of Goran Janicijevic, assistant professor at the subject of Fresco writing.

The opening of exhibition was attended by lots of admirers of church art, people from cultural and public life, archimandrite Danilo(Ljubotina), protopresbyter-staurophor Drago Ubiparipovic, protopresbyter-staurophor Drago Sando, protopresbyter Luka Novakovic, deacon Milan Kovacevic, Dr Vojislav Milovanovic, head architect of St Sava`s Cathedral at Vracar.

On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 was five years since the pogrom of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia. His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral served at noon at the Belgrade Cathedral church a memorial service to all suffered Serbs in Kosovo and Metohia; with the concelebration of members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church: Bishop Hrizostom of Zica, Bishop Hrizostom of Bihac and Petrovac; then Bishop Pahomije of Vranje and vicar Bishop Atanasije of Hvosno, and protopresbyter-staurophor Sava B. Jovic, Luka Novakovic, Dragoslav Ubiparipovic, Dragomir Sanda, Radic Radicevic, Branko Topalovic, Slavisa Popovic and protodeacon Stevan Rapajic and Vlada Mikic; and in a presence of His Eminence Metropolitan Jovan of Zagreb and Ljubljana and His Grace Bishop Filaret of Milesevo.

Members of the Holy Archbishop Synod of Serbian Orthodox Church met today Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia Vuk Jeremic, Minister of Culture and Information Nebojsa Bradic, Minister for Kosovo and Metohia Goran Bogdanovic, associates and Mladjan Djordjevic, consultant of the President of the Republic of Serbia for Kosovo and Metohia.

The Members of Synod and ministers of the Republic of Serbia met regarding five years since the March pogrom in Kosovo and Metohia, when 19 people lost their lives and 950was injured, more than 4 000 Serbs exiled their homes, and 35 Christian sacred sites were demolished.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has sent messages to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) President Luis Maria de Puig and UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura. Patriarch Kirill reminded them that it will be five years on March 17 since the tragic developments in Kosovo and Metochia when radical nationalists started ethnic cleansing against Serbs, which he said resulted in the massive violation of human rights, hundreds of deaths, flows of refugees and the destruction of scores of churches and monasteries in the area.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia hopes that return of the historical bells to the St. Daniel's Monastery from Harvard University will facilitate the development of the relations between Russia and the United States. "Hopefully, the return of the bells will become a new page in the relations between Russia and the U.S.," the Patriarch told journalists at a ceremony of the first ringing of the St. Daniel's bells in the cloister on Tuesday.

The essence of marriage is to attain unity of two individuals, and child bearing is the natural result of such unity, the priest and psychologist said. "The purpose of marriage is to create a spiritual union of two individuals. Child bearing is only a natural result of marriage, rather than its precondition and goal," the Priest Andrey Lorgus said in his lecture at the Moscow Spiritual Library cultural center.